Taejo (Yi Seong-gye)

Where they went

15 related events

1. 1350 – 1389Japanese Pirate Raidscommander

   From about 1350 Japanese pirates (wokou) raided Goryeo’s coasts and interior year after year; commanders such as Choe Yeong, Choe Mu-seon, Yi Seong-gye and Jeong Ji drove them off, and a new military elite rose in the process.

2. 1
   1356Recovery of the Ssangseong Commanderyrelated figure

   King Gongmin sent Yu In-u and others against the Ssangseong Commandery, recovering the land north of Cheollyeong after 99 years, with help from inside by Yi Ja-chun and his son Yi Seong-gye.

3. 2
   1359 – 1362Red Turban Invasionscommander

   The Red Turbans, Han Chinese rebels against the late Yuan, invaded Goryeo twice; in the second invasion Gaegyeong fell and King Gongmin fled to Bokju (Andong).

4. 3
   1380Battle of Hwangsancommander

   Yi Seong-gye crushed the pirates who, having lost their ships at Jinpo, were ravaging the interior, at Mount Hwangsan in Unbong, Namwon.

5. 4
   1388Wihwado Retreatleader

   When the Ming claimed the land north of Cheollyeong, King U and Choe Yeong launched an expedition against Liaodong, but Yi Seong-gye turned the army back at Wihwado, ousted Choe Yeong and seized power.

6. 5
   1391The Gwajeon Lawleader

   Yi Seong-gye and the new scholar-officials abolished the magnates’ estates and enacted the Gwajeon Law, granting officials rent rights to land in Gyeonggi only.

7. 6
   1392Killing of Jeong Mong-jurelated figure

   Jeong Mong-ju, leader of the moderate scholar-officials who defended Goryeo against a change of dynasty, was killed at Seonjuk Bridge in Gaegyeong by Yi Bang-won’s men; three months later Yi Seong-gye took the throne.

8. 7
   1392Founding of Joseonleader

   Yi Seong-gye overthrew Goryeo and founded Joseon, moving the capital to Hanyang in 1394.

9. 8
   1394Capital moved to Hanyangleader

   King Taejo moved the capital from Gaegyeong to Hanyang, where Jeong Do-jeon laid out the shrines, palace and city walls.

10. 9
    1395Cheonsang yeolcha bunyajido carvedmonarch

    Under King Taejo, a star chart based on a rubbing of a Goguryeo astronomical map was corrected and carved in stone as the Cheonsang yeolcha bunyajido.

11. 10
    1395Jongmyo Shrine, Seoulmonarch

    The royal ancestral shrine holding the spirit tablets of Joseon kings and queens. Completed in 1395 with the move to Hanyang, it became a World Heritage Site in 1995.

12. 11
    1395Gyeongbokgung builtmonarch

    The main palace, Gyeongbokgung, was completed in the new capital; Jeong Do-jeon named it after a line in the Book of Songs.

13. 12
    1398Seonggyungwan Built and the State Schools of Joseonmonarch

    After the move to Hanyang the highest academy, Seonggyungwan, was built. With the Four Schools in the capital and the hyanggyo in the provinces it made up the state school system, while village schools (seodang) and private academies (seowon) taught privately.

14. 13
    1398First Strife of Princesmonarch

    Yi Bang-won killed Jeong Do-jeon and the crown prince and seized power; after a second strife in 1400 he became King Taejong.

15. 14
    1410Gyeonggijeon Shrine, Jeonjurelated figure

    King Taejong built a hall in Jeonju, ancestral seat of the royal house, to enshrine the portrait of Taejo Yi Seong-gye; Sejong named it Gyeonggijeon.

Related works

People who appear alongside

• 
  Jeong Do-jeon1342 – 1398

  Neo-Confucian architect of the new dynasty who named the palace and capital gates; killed in the First Strife of Princes

• Choe Yeong1316 – 1388

  General who fought the Red Turbans and Japanese pirates, won at Hongsan in 1376, and was executed after the Wihwado retreat

• 
  Taejong (Yi Bang-won)1367 – 1422

  Third king of Joseon, who seized power in the Strifes of Princes and strengthened royal authority

• King Gongmin1330 – 1374

  Thirty-first king of Goryeo, who led anti-Yuan reforms, recovered the Ssangseong Commandery and backed Sin Don’s reforms

• King U1365 – 1389

  Thirty-second king of Goryeo, who ordered the Liaodong expedition and was deposed after the Wihwado retreat

• King Gongyang1345 – 1394

  Last king of Goryeo, placed on the throne by Yi Seong-gye’s faction; the Gwajeon Law was enacted in his reign

• Choe Mu-seon1325 – 1395

  Inventor who learned to make gunpowder, built cannon at the Hwatong Dogam and burned the pirate fleet at Jinpo

• Jo Jun1346 – 1405

  New Confucian official who drafted the Gwajeon land reform and helped found Joseon

Themes this person appears in

• Song, Ming and Samurai JapanAD 960 – 1500

  The age when the civil-minded Song bought peace from Liao, Western Xia and Jin while the lower Yangtze boomed and Neo-Confucianism took shape, and the Ming, having driven out the Yuan, rebuilt the East Asian order through imperial autocracy, the sea ban and tribute — as Japan passed through the Kamakura and Muromachi warrior governments into the Warring States era, and Korea from Goryeo to Joseon

• Changes in the Land SystemAD 687 – 1950

  From nogeup to the end of office land — how the rights granted to officials shrank, and gave way to modern land ownership

• Changes in TaxationAD 755 – 1894

  From land tax, tribute and labour to cash taxes in the Gabo Reform — burdens shifting from people and households to land

• Educational Institutions Through the AgesAD 372 – 1943

  From the Taehak and Gukhak to the Gukjagam and Seonggyungwan, modern schools and the colonial education ordinances — state schools that trained officials and the private schools that filled the gaps

• Changes in Architecture1200 – 1910

  From Geungnakjeon at Bongjeongsa to Seokjojeon at Deoksugung — Goryeo bracket styles, Joseon palaces, walls and multi-storey temple halls, and the Western buildings of the Korean Empire

• Science and Technology HeritageAD 633 – 1861

  From Cheomseongdae to the Daedong yeojido — instruments and maps that measured the sky, kept time, gauged rain and charted the land

• Intangible and World Heritage2000 BC – 1850

  From the dolmens to Namhansanseong on the World Heritage List, from Jongmyo ritual music to ssireum on the Intangible Heritage lists — where each came from and when it was inscribed

• GaeseongAD 901 – 2003

  From Wang Geon, lord of Songak, to the Kaesong Industrial Complex — Gaegyeong, Goryeo’s capital for five centuries, and home of the Song merchants

• Seoul18 BC – 1988

  From Hanseong Baekje to the June Democratic Struggle — the Han River land every kingdom fought for, and Joseon’s capital for five centuries

• AndongAD 930 – 1940

  From the Battle of Gochang that helped found Goryeo to Yi Hwang’s Dosan Seowon — home of Goryeo wooden halls and Yeongnam Confucianism

• JeonjuAD 685 – 1894

  From Wansanju, capital of Later Baekje, to the ancestral seat of the Joseon royal house — where the Annals were saved and the Donghak army took the fortress